Top Five Scariest Rides At Thorpe Park

SAW: The Ride

It’s the world’s first ever horror-movie themed rollercoaster, and it lives up to its fearsome reputation.

The whole queuing process is filled with winks to the hugely popular SAW series of films, with grainy CCTV footage of nervous passengers, distant screams, and allusions to Jigsaw.

The ride itself is everything you expected. Beginning in complete darkness, you don’t see the first drop – and this is perhaps the most frightening moment of the ride. Given the build-up, you are expecting something to leap out at you, or perhaps some sort of scary sound effect… but the ride has other ideas. A huge axe swings in front of you, but before you get the chance to sneak past in between passes, your throat and stomach are swiftly introduced as the car drops into nothingness and the ride really begins.

Across the course of the ride, there is a beyond vertical 100 degree drop and three inversions, which feel all the more brutal due to the relatively compact size of the car; what’s more, sit at the front and there is nothing else in front of you, save a small guard rail, there for show. SAW: The Ride will leave you shaken, but hungry for more.

Nemesis Inferno

Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park

SAW: The Ride at Thorpe Park

The big brother of Alton Tower’s original Nemesis coaster, Inferno is one of just a handful of inverted rollercoasters in Europe and one of the best in the world. Hanging from the track above, Nemesis Inferno has the feel of an out-of-control train, as it hurtles down its course, carved from craggy rocks.

With nothing beneath you, and your legs just dangling during loops and tight corkscrews, Inferno gives a sensation of freefall missing from most rollercoasters. Definitely worth queuing up for… more than once.

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Detonator

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Sit down, get raised up 100 feet, and then dropped towards the ground at 45 mph, with a pull of 5.5G.

With the queuing area winding around Detonator, the waiting is almost as much fun as the ride itself. Seeing and hearing the reactions of the people being dropped is a macabre exercise in self-abuse, as the sense of apprehension rises the closer you move to the front of the queue. Furthermore, as the journey is so short (and fast) there is a quick turnaround on passengers, which means repeat goes aren’t too time-consuming. Detonator is brilliant, exhilarating, terrifying fun.

Vortex

Vortex at Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park's Detonator thrillride

Spinning, swinging, almost upside down; Vortex is my favourite ride at Thorpe Park. Weightless one second, and then pointing face-down hurtling towards the ground the next, it’s a dizzying experience and one that is missed out by many visitors to Thorpe Park as they make their way to the ‘big’ rides instead. Take it from me, it’s something you definitely want to mark on the park map.

Stealth

Thorpe Park's fastest rollercoaster, Stealth

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Stealth’s fear factor comes from the overwhelming sense of anticipation, which builds and builds the closer you get to your turn on the rollercoaster. Going from 0-80mph in less than two seconds has a peculiar affect on a person, one which usually results in a shocked scream, and seeing others launched towards the lofty 205ft drop at such an insane speed just doesn’t prepare you for how it feels.

Combine taking off in a plane with going over a bridge in a car, and you’re getting close to the feeling that hits you in the chest and turns your stomach.

It’s not a long ride, but is most definitely worth the wait – if your nerves can take it.